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Are you ready to eat real food, but you’re overwhelmed by all the work that seems to be involved? Allow me to introduce you to my friend…the Chicken. And to my other friends: Apples, Butter, and Cream. Don’t forget the infamous Green Bean. Gather ’round. I want to show you how to make real food EASY!

Sure, there’s no such thing as a free {real food} lunch. What I mean is, real food doesn’t just appear on the table by magic – so I certainly can’t claim that making real food for your family doesn’t take any work at all.

But I can tell you how to make the work much, much easier!!

And if you’re afraid of switching over from processed, boxed, pre-made foods or take-out because you don’t even know where to start – I would be so very happy to guide you along in this transition! I PROMISE it is much easier than you think!!! And it tastes delicious and normal. Who knew?

How to Make Real Food Easy!

I want to walk you through taking some very simple, inexpensive first steps toward transitioning your kitchen away from processed foods and settling into enjoying more real food.

The good news with this? You can start with whatever step you’re ready for! Struggling to give up soda? Don’t despair. Just start with something else. Can’t stand veggies? How about learning some new ways to eat them, or just start with fruit instead. If nothing else, start your journey to a real food kitchen by switching from margarine to real butter. There are so many places to start – and you can begin with whatever is right for you!

You Can Do This!

You may remember this eCourse from many years ago. I’m happy to share that we’ve spent the past few months re-working it so that it is brand new and improved!

It includes 49 pages, 5 lessons, printables, worksheets, videos, tutorials, instruction, tips, and recipes. You can use this to baby step or giant step your way toward a real food kitchen – go at your own pace!

Let’s Do This!

Oh look! We updated our Let’s Do This eCourse too! It includes 32 pages, 5 lessons, printables, worksheets, videos, tutorials, instruction, tips, and recipes. This eCourse walks you through managing your real food kitchen so that you can simplify and actually get ahead! Fill the freezer, make tonight’s dinner in the morning, get some healthy snacks stashed away for the week.

It actually is possible to get ahead and simplify your life, and this eCourse shows you how!

Afraid to take an eCourse?

Don’t worry. The teacher is very nice. ;) Upon completion, everyone gets an A. The only homework involved is yours and yours alone, to be done on your own time and for your family’s benefit. Once you purchase, you can keep the course information forever and reference them as needed. Read them on your computer or print the pages you need in your hands. What else?

Oh, these eCourses only cost $10 each. (“Where else can you take an entire class at such a low cost?!” exclaims the mother of many college students.)

It’s kind of too good to be true, except that we love all that these offer and we want to make them accessible to everyone! So it’s good AND it’s true. And there’s something else:

We put them together into a Real Food Kitchen Package!

We packaged up both of the new-and-improved eCourses, and we threw in our Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks recipe eBook because you really need those incredible recipes along with these eCourses!

Total cost for all three of these would normally be $25. But for one week, you can get this entire package of 3 resources for just $12! Total!

Ready to start working your way toward a healthy, real food, easy kitchen life? This time couldn’t be more perfect!

Real Food Kitchen Package

Take our two simple eCourses and enjoy our Make-Ahead recipes eBook too - all at a huge discount! "You Can Do This!" eCourse walks you through the first five steps of turning your kitchen into a Real Food Kitchen. "Let's Do This!" eCourse teaches you how to actually get ahead in your Real Food Kitchen. And "Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks" eBook gives you 33 recipes that you can make ahead and enjoy at your convenience!

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I’ve been talking about this for years, and with good reason. It truly is possible to prepare your holiday meal BEFORE the holiday. I love using these methods so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas just as much as everyone else!

For several years, I’ve been sharing how to easily make most of our Thanksgiving or Christmas dishes ahead of time. Truly! You can get ahead, then when the big day comes, you don’t have to spend hours cooking and cleaning. Imagine actually savoring the turkey and side dishes you slaved over. (Except that you don’t have to actually slave over them because I’ll show you how to make them the easy way!)

Enjoy the following recipes and preparation guide to help you get ahead this holiday season!

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

You might remember that a couple of years ago I spent the entire month of November detailing how we get ahead for the holidays so that we can (wait for it…) actually enjoy the holidays.

Call me selfish, but I like to actually enjoy eating my turkey instead of sweating over it while guests are walking through my door. And you and I both know I can’t talk and cook at the same time. It’s perfectly ridiculous how bad I am at doing both tasks simultaneously.

Here’s more proof (as if you need any): A few weeks ago a college girl stood in my kitchen with me while I finished preparing the meal I was about to feed a crowd of students. Dreamily, she asked, “So tell me how you and Matt met!” And I was like, “Matt who?”

Oh, that Matt. I remember now.

I try to be a delightful hostess, I do. And it’s ridiculous how much I love feeding people in my home. But why do people ask such difficult questions like “Where’s your bathroom?” and “Is that your youngest son?” when I am trying to remember if I salted the green beans? I don’t have a PhD. You know who has the answers to your difficult and practically impossible questions? Google. Or better yet, Jesus. Jesus is THE answer. Ask and it shall be given to you. Read your Bibles, people.

So once again, as we head into a Merry Thanksgiving and a Happy Christmas season, I encourage us all to alleviate holiday stress and to give ourselves the best chance at enjoying our wonderful guests by doing everything we can ahead of time. Maybe you are better than I am at synchronized talking and cooking. Even so, we’ll all be blessed to have our creamed whipped and our potatoes mashed and our stuffing stuffed ahead of time.

Getting Ahead for the Holidays

This is an absolutely free resource we’ve created to be new and improved – made available once again for all Simple Meals members! Here are a few of the sample pages in this downloadable packet:

And rest assured, we included links so you can access all the recipes and instructions for how to make all of these wonderful holiday dishes ahead of time!

I can think of no better time of year to join Simple Meals. You know why? Because you have turkeys to bake and presents to wrap and carols to sing. This is no time for you to have to figure out what to feed your family on a regular Tuesday or to calculate how much chicken to buy.

Simple Meals does all your meal planning, grocery listing, and recipe finding for you. The meal ideas are all perfectly simple and fast, and of course, they are family friendly.

Read more details here, and sign up today.You’ll get a complete weekly planning packet every Thursday morning in your inbox. The hard work is done. Simple Meals saves the day, every day of the week, for only $1 a week. Score!

It comes with oodles of freebies, and for this week and next, it will include this one, the Getting Ahead for the Holidays resource packet! (Current members: watch for yours to come in your regular Thursday Planning Packet email!)

Bonus: Now through November 15, get $10 off your first year’s subscription! No coupon code needed. Simply click through to order and the $10 discount will be automatically applied! Offer expires Wednesday, November 15.

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

With a houseful of teenage boys, it’s difficult to get ahead.

I’m talking about food in this case, although I guess the same statement is true in every area of life in a household full of kids. (I’m looking at you, Laundry Pile. Dirty Dishes. Mail. Shoe Closet.) Bah.

This is why I did some freezer cooking a few weeks ago when three outa four of our boys were still at church camp. With hardly anyone here to eat, I actually had leftovers to put in the freezer. Yay me!

I took a few pictures along the way to share with you. Take note that not all freezer cooking involves making casseroles. There are many other ways to get ahead. For instance…

I had a cheese shredding marathon:

It only takes a few minutes and NO EFFORT to shred 8 packages of cheese when I use my food processor. I ran it through the shred piece, so now I have two big bowls of shredded cheese ready to add to everything we need for the next couple of weeks! (Yes, this will be gone by the time we start school. Whatever.)

Almost as important as shredded cheese is the double batch of frozen cookie balls I made. These won’t last long once the boys discover them, but I love that they can take out a few and bake them for an afternoon snack. I used this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

I made two bags of our favorite Apricot Chicken. I’ll dump this into the crock pot on a busy school day. (This is a recipe from our Eat Right Away Collection. These are a must have because they save so much time!)

You know I didn’t do all of this, all on the same day, right? No way. But, there was a day I made not one but SIX batches of homemade whole wheat tortillas. That was a tortilla making record for me!

Malachi helped me use the tortillas to make 24 Lazy Dogs and 24 Meat and Cheese Burritos. We still had leftover tortillas for a few quesadillas, so I felt very accomplished that day.

Another time, I cut and cooked 5 pounds of bacon to have on hand for salads and scrambled eggs. More on that later. :)

Last, I made a double batch of Giant Breakfast Cookies. Instead of baking them, I froze them into unbaked cookie balls. This means we can take out a few and bake them fresh any morning we want/need them. I’ll share specifics on how to do this another day soon!

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Why? Why do we make it hard? And the most important question of all, who loves how the cranberry sauce from the store plops out of the can and remains forever in the shape of the can? How do they do that, anyway?

Don’t answer that. I already know. It’s made with gelatin. I could make my cranberry sauce with gelatin too, if I wanted. It might be kind of fun, actually. I could use a tin can to make a cranberry sauce mold and I could plop it out on Thanksgiving morning. It would bring back fun memories of my childhood, because that was one of my favorite holiday jobs. I could re-live that suction sound it made as the jellied variety of cranberry sauce came out of the can. That would be way, way, way better than my memories of the sound a can of biscuits makes when it opens. I can’t even handle thinking about that one. (I’m a canned biscuit big baby scaredy cat chicken.)

So homemade cranberry sauce. It is so easy. I’d never even made it before last week because I figured it might be hard. Really, Laura? You put cranberries and sugar in a pot and you cook it for a few minutes to create cranberry sauce. Well, I had no idea.

This recipe is a total no-brainer. It’s as easy as Stir-and-Pour Bread. In fact, this sauce tastes very good on top of a slice of that particular bread. I promise to continue to make all of our real food cooking as easy as possible.

Please note though that while this is easy and made with real food – this recipe is very full of sugar. I tried to cut down the sugar – you know – to prove like so many other recipes that all the sugar is ridiculous. Unfortunately, this dish mocked me to my face. (Literally, to my very puckered up face.) It was like, “I dare you to cut the sugar down and not make weird faces. Go ahead. Try it. Heh. Nice face.”

Fine. My face was unbecoming. Make this cranberry sauce of the low sugar variety at your own risk. Keep your camera handy. Your cranberry sauce face photos will be a delight for years to come.

Whatever your sugar content choice, I promise you will love how ridiculously easy this side dish is to make. I will be making mine a couple days before Thanksgiving so that I can simply pull it out of the fridge to serve. I got my fresh cranberries for 99¢ so I was very excited. You probably wanted to know that.

Place cranberry sauce in a serving dish, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

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Make this several days before serving if you wish. Yes! It is another make-ahead dish to save you time on Thanksgiving or Christmas (or some Friday in February). Add this recipe to your Getting Ahead for the Holidays Check-List.

While I’ve got you, I am pleased to announce the three Getting Ahead for the Holidays winners of the $25 Gift Certificates good toward any of our eCourses or downloadable items in theHeavenly Homemakers Shop!

Jane J.: bnwalker@

Shelby: sixforemans@

Karen: kloumc21@

Winners, email me (laura at heavenlyhomemakers.com) and I’ll send you a certificate!

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

If I think about it too hard, I will realize that prepping for a holiday meal is an enormous amount of work to put into one forty-five minute eating session. Thankfully there will be fellowship, gratitude reflection, and best of all: leftovers. This work is all worth it because of the leftovers. (I mean fellowship. I only do this for the fellowship.)

Getting Ahead for the Holidays means that most of my hard work is complete by Thanksgiving morning. I can simply rewarm food, put together last minute dishes, and enjoy all my people. That’s the point, after all. Enjoying our people. Reveling in all God has given. Totally being thankful for leftovers. (I can’t help it.)

This year, we will be hosting Thanksgiving with some dear friends, gathering as many into our home as can fit (and then some). I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. I’ve already started cooking. Sharing the Getting Ahead for the Holidays series with you has helped with my own planning – so thank you! This has been fun!

Below, I’ve outlined my ideal plan for knocking out everything on my to-do list. Will it all happen exactly according to plan? It never does. At least the list helps keep all my thoughts in one place!

About 1 1/2 hours before serving time, I will bake or re-heat prepared foods. I will make gravy. I will bake the rolls. I will speak complete sentences and have actual conversations while doing this. I will. (Well, I’ll get back to you on that.)

Here are the quick links to all the recipes we covered in this series:

I would love to hear what all you are planning to prepare ahead this holiday season!

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Last I checked, Sara Lee charges over $3 for her frozen pies. I don’t blame her. I’d charge $5. But when I make my own pies, it can cost as little as $1 and I know what ingredients I’m including. Plus I’m making mine with love and all that. (Priceless, no doubt.)

Making a frozen pie is as easy as making a not frozen pie. Not that making a pie is easy. Nor is it really hard. You just have to commit, you know? You have to be like, “Today I am going to mix together and roll out pie crusts. I’m just going to do it and get this job out of the way. Everyone will love the pie. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Let’s do this.”

Then, after you mix and roll your crusts, you add whatever filling you want (pumpkin, apple, etc). You wrap them well, and you freeze them.

This is exactly how Sara Lee does it. Only she puts hers in a box. We’ll skip that part.

This post is chuck full of pie-making tips, recipes, and instructions. Shall we begin?

Blend until shortening is cut throughout the flour and the mixture resembles crumbs.

Drizzle in the water while the food processor is still whirling.

Continue until a ball of dough forms.

Roll out your dough into a circle on a well floured surface.

Fold the circle in half. Then fold it in half again.

Place your dough in your pie dish with the folded corner in the center.

Unfold the dough, shape it into the dish and make the edges pretty. (see tutorial video below)

Poke your dough a few times with a fork to keep it from poofing up in the oven.

Bake at 450° for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Or, fill it with pie filling and bake as directed in specific pie recipe.

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How to Shape a Pie Crust

You can look through a picture tutorial on this post to see the specifics of how to roll a pie crust and place it in a pie pan.

Want to watch me shaping a pie crust a few years ago? Watch the video below. (Click here if the video doesn’t show up for you.)

How to Make a Frozen Pie

To make a frozen pumpkin or fruit pie, make it according to the directions but do not bake. Wrap the unbaked pie very well in plastic wrap. You might even consider putting the wrapped pie into a freezer bag for extra freezer protection. Label the pie. Freeze for up to three months.

To bake your frozen pie, take it out of the freezer and put it directly into a cold oven. Turn on the oven and bake as directed allowing a little extra baking time if necessary. See how easy this is?!

If you plan to make a cream pie, bake your crust as directed, allow it to cool, then wrap and freeze. Thaw crust and add your cream filling before serving.

Wash and slice apples. Stir in sucanat and cinnamon. Make a double pie crust recipe. Place one crust on the bottom of a pie pan. Spread apple pie filling into the unbaked crust. Place the second pie crust on top. Seal and shape as shown in the video above. Freeze if desired. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes.

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If I had to choose a favorite holiday dish, it would have to be Green Bean Casserole. It’s not something I remember eating when I was growing up. I discovered it sometime after Matt and I got married. So yum.

The recipe I learned to make? It was the one with canned cream of mushroom and french fried onions. Man, I loved that stuff.

Once I learned more about cooking with real food ingredients, I knew that the canned cream of mushroom soup and French fried onions didn’t make the cut. But this casserollllllle! How to make a real food version?

I learned long ago how to make cream soups. French fried onions had me stumped though – mostly because of the time I felt it would take to create them. Then all my plans to keep my real food kitchen simple would be out the window.

Finally I figured out how I could make this casserole without mushroom soup or French fried onions. It goes without saying, then, that this casserole is very easy to make. Just wait until you see how easy!

In a large saucepan, saute onion and butter together until the minced onion is lightly toasted.

Turn heat down to low.

Stir in cornstarch, then add milk.

Turn heat up to thicken cream sauce, stirring constantly until sauce is thick and bubbly.

Stir in cooked green beans, salting liberally.

Pour the mixture into a 9x13 inch casserole dish.

Top with grated cheese.

Cover and bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

Uncover and bake for 10 minutes more.

Serve.

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To Freeze Green Bean Casserole:

Make the casserole as directed in the recipe above. All it to cool completely. Cover and freeze for up to three months.

To bake and serve, thaw casserole in the refrigerator and bake as directed. OR, cover the frozen dish with foil. Place it in a cold oven*. Turn the oven on to 250° and bake for 2 hours. Turn the oven up to 350° to continue baking to heat through.

*Be sure your oven is cold when you put in the frozen dish! Otherwise, the pan will crack because of the extreme temperature change.

There is a One-Dish Meal version of this casserole in my Oh, For Real Cookbook called Hearty Green Bean Casserole. It includes hamburger and it is awesome.

Note that if you use corn starch instead of wheat flour to make the sauce for this recipe, it will be completely gluten free.

I think this will soon become one of your favorite holiday dishes! Then, of course, you will find yourself making it many times all year round. No need to wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas for this one!

Here are the quick links to all the recipes we covered in this series:

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I’ve probably told you about the first time I made gravy for Matt (who was my boyfriend at the time). It was so thick he had to spread it onto his potatoes with a knife. I’m pretty sure it was flavorless. He still married me a year later.

Thankfully, I’ve improved my gravy-making skills. I think it gets easier with practice. Sometimes I still mess it up. I’ve been known to strain out lumps while distracting my guests by sending them outside to look for the black squirrels we sometimes have on our property. Straining works, and black squirrels are fascinating.

I’ve made so many of our other dishes ahead of time that I have plenty of time to make gravy just before serving the meal.

Turkey Gravy can be made in only about 10 minutes.

Why do I wait until the last minute to make gravy?

Because it tastes best this way. You can make it ahead of time and rewarm it before serving (we do this with leftover gravy, after all). But I prefer to make a fresh batch for a special meal on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Oh Good Gravy

Cold water (about ⅓ cup for each of your 2 Tablespoons of corn starch/arrowroot/flour)

Sea salt

Instructions

Spoon cornstarch (or arrowroot or flour) into a small jar or glass.

Add water to to the jar and whisk smooth with a fork.

Pour broth into a medium saucepan. Heat to boiling.

Slowly pour cornstarch (or arrowroot or flour) and water mixture into boiling broth, whisking while you pour.

Stir at medium to high heat until gravy thickens.

Turn down the heat and allow the gravy to simmer for a minute or two.

Salt to taste and serve your gravy.

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You’ll notice my recipe gives the option of using cornstarch, arrowroot powder, or wheat flour to thicken your gravy. Any will work. I prefer cornstarch because it’s easiest. Arrowroot powder works well but can sometimes result in a gooey gravy. Wheat flour works well, but I’d rather avoid it so that people with a gluten or wheat intolerance can still enjoy it.

Trouble Shooting Your Gravy

If it isn’t thick enough for your liking, simply stir 2 Tablespoons cornstarch/arrowroot/flour into about 3 Tablespoons of water – making a consistency just thinner than paste. Stir it into your gravy while it is hot, whisking until smooth. This should thicken it up as it cooks.

Lumpy gravy? Whisk like you’ve never whisked before.

Still lumpy? Strain out the lumps the best you can. Pray your guests like lumpy gravy. Hey, you never know.

Here is a picture tutorial to show you the specifics of making Turkey Gravy:

Step One: Pour broth into a medium saucepan.

Step Two: Spoon cornstarch (or arrowroot or flour) into a small jar or glass.
(Surprise, surprise…I use a jar.)

Step Three: Add cold water to cornstarch/arrowroot/flour and whisk smooth with a fork.

Step Four: Bring broth to a boil.

Step Five: Slowly pour cornstarch (or arrowroot, or flour)/water mixture into boiling broth, stirring while you pour. (I usually use a whisk. On picture taking day, I used a wooden spoon. Either one works, but a whisk usually helps in case lumps want to form.

Step Six: Stir at medium to high heat until mixture thickens.
Turn down the heat and allow the gravy to simmer for a minute or two.
Salt to taste.

What has been your gravy making experience? Do you find it easy? Hard? Lumpy?

Here are the quick links to all the recipes we covered in this series:

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Oh yes. You can. You can make mashed potatoes ahead of time.

Now, there are some things you’ll need to avoid. Here are two mashed potato tricks that do not work:

1. Do not boil potatoes with the plan to mash and serve them later.

While this seems like such a good idea, this will turn them into a sticky, gooey mess.

2. Do not make mashed potatoes and freeze them as-is.

I’ve never had success with this. Plain mashed potatoes freeze fine but thaw weird. They are always watery and unappetizing. These are not the kind of potatoes I want to include on my holiday table. If you do freeze them as-is, you must cook the frozen/thawed potatoes in a pot to steam off excess water that has formed in the freezing process. More info to come.

Ways to prepare this side dish favorite ahead of time:

1. Scrub or peel the potatoes and put them into a pot of cold water.

Want to get the prep work out of the way on a busy day filled with meal preparations? Typically I pull my family into the kitchen the night before the holiday meal. Together, we scrub and chop potatoes. We put them into a large pot, cover them with cold water, put on a lid, and leave them until boiling and mashing time the next day.

2. Make mashed potatoes, then use your crock pot to keep them warm.

What I find very helpful is to follow all the instructions detailed in #1 to prep the potatoes the night before. The next morning – hours before our meal – I cook, drain, and mash. I then put them into a crock pot (with butter, always) on the “keep warm” setting until serving time. In the meantime, I can wash and put away the potato pot, then focus on other meal prep that needs to be done.

3. Embellish the mashed potatoes before freezing them.

While mashed potatoes don’t freeze well as-is, they do freeze well if you add some goodies to them. Take a look at the recipe below for all the specifics! When made like that, they do freeze well. Or, at the very least, you can make them a few days before your holiday meal, refrigerate them, then bake them on serving day. This is the method I plan on using this holiday season.

Freezing Instructions:

Make the potatoes as directed in the recipe above. All it to cool completely. Cover and freeze for up to three months.

To bake and serve, thaw potatoes in the refrigerator and bake as directed. OR, cover the frozen dish with foil. Place the frozen dish of potatoes into a cold oven*. Turn the oven on to 250° and bake for 2 hours. Turn the oven up to 350° to continue baking to heat through.

*Be sure your oven is cold when you put in the frozen dish! Otherwise, the pan will crack because of the extreme temperature change.

What has been your experience with making potatoes ahead of time?

Here are the quick links to all the recipes we covered in this series: